This invention relates to a wheeled vehicle upon which is mounted a lifting means for conveying loads, such as a crane or a fork lift.
Vehicles used conventionally for conveying loads typically employ a heavy body and are equipped with highly complex means for revolving. In addition, the working environment where such vehicles are often used, such as storage areas, warehouses, construction sites and the like, is frequently confining. Since the conventional vehicle requires a relatively large amount of space for changing direction, it can be revolved only with difficulty under typical working conditions. Furthermore, sidewise operation of such conventional vehicles when carrying a load is difficult due to instability.
The present invention relates to a novel apparatus which remedies these and other defects of vehicles of conventional design. In particular, the complicated revolving equipment found in a conventional vehicle is eliminated, and the vehicle weight is lessened through overall design simplication.
In performing a revolution, the three wheels of the wheeled vehicle of the present invention can be oriented so that each wheel travels along a circle centered near the middle of the vehicle, and passing through the point of ground contact of each wheel, thereby minimizing the radius of revolution of the vehicle. Since the direction of movement of the vehicle is always along a direction tangential to the circle, a consequence which follows from such a manner of revolution is a highly stabilized body, even when the body comprises the vehicle with a suspended load.